Water Kefir Grains not working (I think)

[Guest guest]

Hello Group,

I could use some assistance. I recently received my water kefir grains from a

fellow group member and am having trouble making kefir.

My current recipe: 2 quarts of Brita water, 1/2 cup of grains, 1/2 cup of white

sugar, 1-2 tsp of molasses (to replace the minerals lost in the brita filter).

The room is ~70 degrees F. The glass jar is covered with a coffee filter.

Since the grains were sent through the mail for a few days, I dumped the first

two batches of kefir. So after 24 hours, I strained out the grains, dumped the

solution, and put the grains in a new mixture of the same ratios. After another

24 hours (I noticed some bubbles when I moved the jar), I did the same thing and

placed the grains in a third mixture. With the third batch, I saw a good amount

of bubbles but let it sit for ~48 hours because it still tasted very sweet after

24 hours. At ~48 hours, it still tasted fairly sweet although it didn’t smell

as sweet. How sweet is the kefir when you drink it? Does it ever reach a

semi-sour taste or will it be sweet? Right now I’m drinking the kefir from the

third batch, but it’s sweeter than I would have expected (I’ve never had

kefir before so I’m not sure what it should taste like). It actually tastes

very similar to the sugar water mixture. Part of me thinks the grains aren't

doing anything...is

that even possible?

My fourth batch has now been brewing for 72 hours and is still very sweet.

 Again, it tastes must like the sugar water mixture. What am I doing wrong?

 Yemoos.com claims using half a lemon to aid in lowering the ph of the medium.

 Should I do that?

Thanks, 

Tim (Connecticut, USA)